Artistic gesture is the expression of the physiognomy; it is transluminous action; it is the mirror of lasting things.

Lacordaire, that spoiled child of the intellect, spoke magnificently.  He interested, he aroused admiration, but he did not persuade.  His organism was rebellious to gesture.  He was the artist of language.  Ravignan, inferior intellectually, prepared his audience by his attitude, touched them by the general expression of his face, fascinated them by his gaze.  He was the artist of gesture.

Thus, if we sing, let us not forget that the prelude, the refrain, is the spiritual expression of the song; that we must take advantage of this exordium to guide ourselves, to predispose our hearers in our favor; that we must point out to them, must make them foresee by the expression of our face the thought and the words which are to follow; that, in fact, the ravished spectator may be dazzled by a song which he has not yet heard, but which he divines or thinks that he divines.

Definition of Gesture. (Compare Delaumosne, page 43.)

Gesture is the direct agent of the heart.  It is the fit manifestation of feeling.  It is the revealer of thought and the commentator upon speech.  It is the elliptical expression of language; it is the justification of the additional meanings of speech.  In a word, it is the spirit of which speech is merely the letter.  Gesture is parallel to the impression received; it is, therefore, always anterior to speech, which is but a reflected and subordinate expression.

Gesture is founded on three bases which give rise to three orders of studies; that is, to three sciences, namely:  The static, the dynamic and the semeiotic.

What are these three sciences, and, first of all, what are they in relation to gesture?  The semeiotic is its mind; the dynamic is its soul; the static is founded on the mutual equilibrium or equipoise of the agents.

The dynamic presents the multiple action of three agents; that is to say, of the constituent forces of the soul.

The semeiotic presents to our scrutiny a triple object for study.  It sets forth the cause of the acts produced by the dynamic and the static harmonies.  Moreover, it reveals the meaning of the types which form the object of the system.  It offers us a knowledge of the formal or constitutional types, of the fugitive or accidental types, and, finally, of the habitual types.

The triple object of the dynamic are the rhythmic, inflective and harmonic forms.  Dynamic rhythm is founded upon the important law of mobility, inversely proportionate to the masses moved.  Dynamic inflections are produced by three movements:  Direct movements, rotary movements and movements of flexion in the arc of a circle.